About the Carrizo Plain

The Carrizo Plain is a 206,000-acre nature preserve in southeastern San Luis Obispo County. This vast, open landscape is perhaps best known for its vivid springtime wildflower displays, and it represents one of the most remote and unique components of America's public lands.

It is a place where the Caliente and Temblor mountain ranges rise up from the valley floor. Where pronghorn antelope and Tule elk roam freely across the landscape. Where abundant super blooms paint the land with yellow, purple, and orange wildflowers as far as the eye can see. Where Soda Lake shimmers in salty silence. Where the San Andreas Fault cuts through the Earth. And where ancient pictographs tell stories and inspire wonder.

Due to the area's uniqueness and ecological importance, it was declared a national monument in 2001, when President William Jefferson Clinton issued a proclamation under the authority of the Antiquities Act. Since President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law in 1906, eight presidents from both political parties have used it to recognize and protect public lands of important natural, scientific, and historical value to all Americans. Today, 129 national monuments are found across 31 states, representing an important component of our country's heritage.

The Threat

On April 26, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered a review of more than two dozen national monuments across the West. The Carrizo Plain National Monument is one of the areas under review.

The purpose of the review is to recommend whether certain monuments should be reduced in size, or eliminated entirely. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will conduct the review, a task that must be completed by the end of August (120 days).

The "review" is a thinly-veiled attempt to open up these public lands to development. Never in the one-hundred-eleven-year history of the Antiquities Act has a President unilaterally revoked a national monument. We intend to keep it that way.

Who We Are

We are a coalition of individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that have joined together to keep the Carrizo Plain National Monument protected as...well, a national monument - an area set aside for current and future generations to explore and enjoy.

Our goal is to generate 10,000 letters, emails, and phone calls to Secretary Zinke and our elected officials, showing them that our community believes strongly in the sanctity of our public lands.